Sex bias in trials and treatment must end

摘要

It is 20 years since the US National Institutes of Health (NIH) set up its Office of Research on Women's Health (ORWH), and 17 years since Congress passed the NIH Revitalization Act to increase the representation of women and minorities in clinical trials. Some researchers and health officials seem convinced that women and men are now equally represented in biomedical research. A commentary in Science in 2008 even suggested that the bias had shifted against men and that women's health centres and initiatives aimed at recruiting women for clinical trials were no longer necessary.